Jakandy Bennu

I can put stuff on the internet?

Sweet.

Wildcat is back in school. Dragon is bored out of his mind (ready for school). I’ve had management turn-over to deal with (plus hiring 4 new peeps). And Jake is trying to keep his workload under control–holding his own with more work that should ever be assigned to one person (really, it’s a bad part about knowing how to do more computer geekery than other people).

But we have dinnertime.

It’s awesome. There’s nothing like it. Some nights, we cook dinner together and eat dinner together…and sit around together and digest our food…watching brain-dead tv.

Summertime dinnertime is my favorite.

We sit on the deck in the backyard, talk, play with the dogs, enjoy the heat, complain about the heat, watch the evening thunderstorms roll in…grill. Yummy, yummy food. Smiles and laughs. It’s the best there is.

I wish I could hand out some of the smiles and laughs…all I can do is share them. But there is plenty to go around, if you wanna grab a few : )

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson, adapted

Life lessons… why is it always the hard way?

I’m sorry.

Once upon a time, there was a bushy-tree-thingy growing in the backyard… and it must have said something mean to the Dobie…

None of us heard what was said, but it was obviously very offensive…

Cuz it made him angry… And he attacked the bush…

Over and over again…

Until the someone gave up… (not sure who)..

But there was full-on, wild and crazy, circle-running when it was over…

Victory lap?

Whatever it was, Xander thinks he was the winner…

You’ll have to wait to see the awesome den we’ve been working on. It has a few VERY important finishing touches that are on hold for right now.

But… we’ve been remodeling the old study/guestroom to give Dragon his own room.

He wanted a cave…with cave drawings and bats.

So- the light blue room with white trim and is now a cave… complete with fur pelts, a fireplace (window) and a cave door with a curious T-rex investigating the inside of the cave.

We painted everything. Desk. Book shelves. Ceiling fan.

We bought faux fur and cut them into pelts from sabertooth tigers, cave bears and timberwolves. Jake made some spears with clay and bamboo.

And we topped it off with fur lined pillows and a faux-rabbit fur blanket for the bed.

We still have to arrange the closet and move his clothes, but Dragon’s in his own room tonight for the first time in 4 years.

He’s a happy guy. It’s been fun putting this room together as a family.
And it all paid off…

The last couple weeks have been crazy. Not all bad, not all good. Just freakin’ crazy. Hmm… where to start…

• Trying to troubleshoot the itchy skin of our puppy. Changed his diet. So far, itching is slowing down. No new puppy pimples! And his ears don’t smell as bad as before. We’re still watching. The other thing is he’s still growing his big-dog teeth. Makes him wild on some days and slows him down on others. He’s a good pup, though.
• Wildcat went to the dentist. Needs some fillings- 4 of them.
• Our new refrigerator was delivered. It would only fit through 1 of my 4 exterior house doors. And they had to take the doors off of it to do that. I called Jake (who was at the dentist with Wildcat). The conversation went something like this:

me  > The new fridge is here!!
Jake>Woot! Wildcat has cavities.
me > That sucks.
Jake> Yeah. Got appointments made to get them filled.
me> Well…remember how excited we were when we decided not to worry about fitting the fridge into the little ass hole? We stopped looking at dimensions? Probably should have thought about getting the thing INTO the house.
Jake> Oh no. It won’t go in ANY of the doors into the house?
me >They had to take the doors off, but just now got it through the front door. Whew! Let me see if they have the hose hooked up for the waterline…. (mummblemummble, mummble,mummble) Uh… ya know what? They aren’t going to be able to get this fridge through the door into the kitchen, let alone into the utility room. It’s 2inches too wide. Shit.
Jake>(major expletives) What do we do? Send it back?
me > The guys here said we can send it back or take the door frames out. Then it will fit. What do you think we should do?
Jake> I don’t know. You make the call… and when I get home, I hope you have some good news for me. I’m tired of bad news.
me > ok, baby. See you in a bit.

So- I hung up the phone, told the delivery guys to leave it sitting in my dining room and that I would figure it out. They showed me how to put the doors back on and left. I got out my crowbar and wedged off the door jams of both the doors that we needed to go through. (It seems the door frames have been 4 different colors). I waiting for Jake to get home and we measured the doors and the fridge. They were EXACTLY the same. No room for error. We decided to try to make it go…and after 20 minutes of very careful pushing… got the fridge to its new home. YAY!!!!! 

• Moved the old fridge into the new den/bar (gonna be a kegorator one day). Realized we didn’t account for the baseboards when we measured the placement of the bar (so as the fridge could fit)… so- we had to rip up our brand new baseboard to get the old fridge in its new home. But it’s there now. And it’s happy. And we’re happy. (and the new, new baseboard is happy, too)
• We went to my family’s lakehouse at Watt’s Bar on Wednesday. It was a fun trip. Got to visit with my aunt from Texas, her golden retriever and my mom. It was a pretty quiet day there. The rest of the family came on Thursday. There were 7 people at the house on Wed for dinner. They were expecting 24 on Thursday. The boys decided to stay there until Saturday when we came back down. Jake and I had to work the holiday, so it was good for all of us. They had something to keep them busy and we didn’t have to feel like we’re boring them to death.
• I had to work the 4th of July. Sucked. Nobody shops on the 4th…but every other person that comes in says “I CANT BELIEVE YOU GUYS ARE OPEN ON THE 4TH OF JULY! YOU SHOULD BE WITH YOUR FAMILIES!” … and then they spend money. PLEASE NOTE: If you think businesses should be closed for major holidays, DONT SHOP ON THOSE HOLIDAYS!!!  As long as bossman is making more money than ZERO dollars…it’s worth it to him to be open.
• Saturday, Jake and I headed to the lakehouse to join the boys. Had a wonderful time visiting with the rest of my family. Had a combo-baby-shower for my sister-to-be…and my cousin. Celebrated my niece’s 1st birthday. Layed around in the water and on the dock. Relaxing. Dock. Sun. Relaxing. Boat. Lake…….  oh, and throw in a trip to Cleveland to visit an ENT clinic to get Wildcat’s face stitched up. My aunt’s Golden Retriever chomped him. It was the most adrenaline I’ve ever felt in my whole life. Jake told me “welcome to parenthood.” 

Wildcat is learning to live around animals. He loves them, but doesn’t quite understand all the concepts. He’s 6, of course. We’ve been concentrating on the major things like 1) don’t run up to dogs you don’t know  2) don’t stick your face in a dog or cat’s face (for example, when Wildcat came up to us while we were cooking dinner and said “Apache isn’t purring”– he had a scratch down his forehead.– cat’s don’t like zerberts, either –fyi)

Wildcat doesn’t  didn’t understand that all dogs are NOT the same.  Wildcat ran up to the Golden and grabbed his nose and told him to hush his barking (the dog was tied on the porch while everyone was eating dinner).  Dog didn’t like that/didn’t understand that and jumped at Wildcat…catching his bottom tooth on bridge of nose and top tooth at hairline.  It was confusing for both Wildcat and the dog (who has grown up around kids, but not been around little ones in a while)… Needless to say, everyone was upset. We’re kicking ourselves for not making Wildcat understand how to act around dogs… and my aunt is feeling horrible that this dog has been around all the kids all week and didn’t think he would bite a flea.  We all learned.

We asked Wildcat why he ran up to the dog’s face, when we’ve told him 800 times not to run up to dogs he didn’t know… he said “Houston has been my friend for 3 days. He’s not a stranger. I don’t know why he got mad at me…”  It’s a 6-yr old understanding. We are still working on it. 

His stitches come out on Monday. It’s healing nicely. Thanks to the great doc in Cleveland and thanks to the great doc that I call my Daddy. I’ve learned calm and control from him. He’s always in control during emergencies. I didn’t think I had it in me. But it is– it’s neat.  The mothering/protective/soothing side of me came out, too. That’s from Mom. Thanks guys. I love you.

And… then life goes back to normal.

• Sunday we slept and rested all day. (We didn’t get home until 1 am on Saturday night.)
• Monday- work
• Tuesday- work
• Wednesday - We painted Dragon’s room to look like a cave… with cave paintings and everything (pics to come when it’s completed). It’s VERY awesome.

Oh yeah - forgot to mention– I woke up with laryngitis on Friday. Didn’t have voice until Tuesday. At dinner prayers on Tuesday, Wildcat said “Thanks for making mom’s funny voice go away” - hee.

AND- the beagle needs a vacation- to a place where there aren’t any Xanders AND where there are never any thunderstorms….well, at least where there is no thunder.  I think he shook constantly yesterday from 3am until 9pm… when he went to bed last night, he looked like he was stoned. It’s rough on the little guy.

I’m ready for nothing to happen for awhile. Or does that ever happen? Is “nothing” the absence of crazy?  Or is nothing the same as normal?

Normal, in my opinion, is just the crazy that you are used to. Hmmm.. so much to ponder.